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I came up with the idea of doing this poster series based on some annual photos we do as a family every year. This years’ theme was flight and travel taken at the iconic LAX airport. But there was a twist; I wanted to go back a few decades—mainly the 1960’s, when flying was a luxury and somewhat carefree. The ideas for the posters/illustrations came after the photos were taken; I took from several themes—spy shows, movies and decided to come up with my own retro futuristic scenes.
We now exit planes through a metal gangways. Many photographs of the early days show people often disembarking from the actual plane itself and it just seemed like a thing of the past, but I found a way to capture that with the use of the Theme Building, designed by famed architect, Paul Williams.
I also took from early Disney posters that captured the fun and frolic of happy theme park goers, enjoying the excitement of a particular ride or attraction. The artistic style of the posters was simple and colorful without any real attention to detail. They were often accompanied with a short declarative statement or headline about the ride and where the guest was headed to in the adventure.
As punctuation in my work, I added my family as protagonists of the new space race. In the Disney posters, Caucasians are depicted as family and friends, happily enjoying an event and each other’s company. The world is very different now and the new faces are those of color.
